Q&A with Paleis van Mieris

posted on March 08, 2018 by
Supermarket Art Fair

Paleis van Mieris is an Amsterdam-based artist-run initiative. Shortly after its members graduated from the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in 2014, they had the opportunity to use a 4000 m2 building as a temporary working space, organising members group exhibitions and events and introducing guest artists. To Paleis van Mieris it is important to combine the development of their own individual art practices with the encounters, and conversations they conduct; to learn and establish new connections.

With just a little over a month until the next edition of Supermarket, we decided to include Paleis van Mieris in our Q&A series to find out what they plan to show at Supermarket 2018.

What can we look forward to seeing in your exhibition stand at Supermarket 2018?

'Bits & Pieces Put Together to Present a Semblance of a Whole', a work/statement by Lawrence Weiner that sums it all up. Starting as a 'Gesamtkunstwerk' our presentation booth will not only come together as a whole, but it will encompass new and old work according to each of the individual artist's own approach to the practice.

If you could put one thing related to your gallery in a box and store it for eternity, what would it be?

Our sweat and tears in a vial.

What do you see as the biggest asset of being a non-governmental artist-run art space? What are the downsides?

The rhythm of working. We decide what and when, who and how. The downsides are many, from funding to exposure, but they cannot top the rhythm.

You started in 2014 and have since organised a number of exhibitions and projects. What was the highlight of these past years for you?

It might sound brave to say that each and every project mattered equally, but for us as a collective, it really is like that. Our work discipline varies greatly from one project to another, with participating artists being involved to a certain degree, working with or without a budget, involving many external artists or none whatsoever, or building up an exhibition with the help of a working team and outsourced materials or only as a one-man effort. Examples of our many and diverse projects are the theme park ‘Danteland’, a one-month project ‘Shift Operation’,’Minigolf’, and Nook’, which was a solo exhibition space within Paleis van Mieris, to name a few.